studiobeerhorst is making connections

Understanding Everything Better

"Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better" Albert Einstein

The drawing below is of a creek bed littered with fallen branches. This magical place can be found in a thin stretch of woods along the edge of one of our local parks. My daughter Pearl and I have visited several times this Fall to draw. We sit together side by side in the woods and do our best to respond to what we see. With charcoal, ink and a piece of paper we enter into a deeper relationship with a place. It is as if we have found a way to converse with the trees and it has changed us.

Just before we start there is always the sense of what we are trying to do is impossible. How can we even begin to record with any accuracy the splendor that is all around us. Pushing through this intimidation with the very first marks on the paper something good always happens. Once we have begun there now turning back. The first few marks lead to more and in a short time a conversation has begun that is both ancient and firmly rooted in the present moment. Accompanied by the sounds of scurrying squirrels and water going over rocks and gravel we are drawing closer to nature and in the process we have begin to understanding everything better.